AMs welcome Boris pledge to re-examine outer London off-peak fares

Image: TfLLondon Assembly members have welcomed a promise by Mayor Boris Johnson to reconsider a 38% increase in the off-peak zone 1-6 daily fares cap.

The cap is applied when passengers paying by contactless debit or credit card or Oyster pay as you go make a qualifying number of journeys.

Earlier this month the off-peak zone 1-5 cap was increased from £8.50 to £10.90 while passengers travelling to and from zone 6 now pay £11.70 per day.

As the off-peak and peak caps have now been equalised for each zone, critics say there’s less incentive for passengers to travel outside of rush hour which risks creating extra demand for peak time services.

The increase for off-peak passengers was one of a number of price hikes introduced to cover the cost of reducing the peak cap to benefit part-time workers and those who work from home for some of the week.

Transport for London and the Mayor introduced the lower peak caps following calls from Assembly members to recognise that growing numbers of Londoners no longer travel to work every day and were being penalised by an outdated fares system.

Appearing before the Assembly’s Budget and Performance committee on Tuesday, the Mayor accepted that there had been “losers” in this year’s fares package and promised to look again at the new off-peak caps.

Speaking after the meeting, committee chair John Biggs said: “Supporting part-time workers is important, but the Mayor needs to be clear on the details of who’s being affected to pay for this.

“We don’t want to see outer London commuters being unfairly targeted to help fund this policy, particularly if it means more people packing onto peak time services.”